The countdown to Black Friday (November 25), Small Business Saturday (November 26) and Cyber Monday (November 28) has started! This is a time of the year, where customers expect to find the best deals and are more open to purchasing. In 2021 nearly 155 million Americans shopped during Black Friday and retail sales grew 14.1% during the season. But a successful promotion during the busiest sales period of the year requires some planning. Follow our 6 steps to learn how to prepare for Black Friday and download our free guide!
Step 1: Set a SMART Goal
First of all, you need to define your goal. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. This method is used to focus efforts and increase the chances of achieving your goals.
- Specific: Be clear about your goal with this promotion. Ie. What strategy will you use?
- Measurable: How will you measure your success? Set a number goal.
- Achievable: Do you have the resources to achieve this goal?
- Realistic: Is this goal realistic according to your business’ current situation, market, competition, etc.
- Timely: Define the timeline of your goals.
Example: By December 31, 2022, we will sell an additional $50,000 in Q4 by increasing our brand awareness and offering customers incentives and urgency drives to purchase sooner rather than later.
Step 2: Define your offer
Some common offers we see out there are:
- Discount codes
- A free giveaway in all orders/orders above $xyz
- Buy one, get two
- Price reduction in certain products
- Free shipping
You can also have an innovative campaign such as:
- Offer different deals every hour;
- Add a virtual wheel with different deals to your website;
- Introduce a new product line, such as Cuts.
- Partner with a non-profit organization and donate a percentage of your revenue.
Step 3: Will you achieve your goal with this offer?
Now is the time to do some math and forecast your revenue. How much do you need to sell to achieve your goal? Is this reachable? If not, you need to go back and review your goal or offer.
Step 4: Where/where/how will you promote it?
You will need to plan a good marketing strategy to let people know in advance about your promotion and create buzz around it.
- Which platforms will you use? Social media, email marketing, influencers, ads.
- When will you start promoting it? Create a calendar with all dates.
- Do you need to record videos, design graphics and write a copy? Add the deadlines to the calendar and check out our blog about How to Create an Attractive Social Media Presence.
- If you have people helping you, who will be responsible for what?
- Budget? If you are running ads, working with influencers or outsourcing any service, such as graphic design or photography.
Step 5: Make sure your business is ready for a higher demand
Did you know that if a web page takes 1-5 seconds to load, it increases bounce rate probability by 90%? If you are doing online sales, check your website speed to make sure you will not lose sales, because your website is slow. Think about all other details that could go wrong during your promotion, such as:
- Inventory volume;
- Train your sales team for a higher demand;
- Check your shipping strategy;
- Optimize your workflow (if needed);
- Pretend you are the customer and test the buying journey (product descriptions and check out page).
Step 6: Analyze your results
Finally, your campaign does not finish when Cyber Monday ends. When sales are done, it’s time for you to go over the results and see if you reached your goal. Take note of what worked well and what you could improve next year.
We know it seems a lot and that’s why we have a free PDF guide that you can print out and go over step by step. If you need more guidance, you can always contact us and book a coaching session! We would be happy to help you prepare for Black Friday! And don’t forget follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn to be the first to know about our Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday offers.
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